A volcano in the eastern Aleutians erupted suddenly Tuesday afternoon. The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) says several pilots reported seeing an ash cloud about 34,000 feet above Bogoslof volcano.
Bogoslof volcano is on an uninhabited island 60 miles northwest of Unalaska.
The observatory says a short-lived explosion occurred at 4pm Tuesday, but the activity has died down. For now, the AVO and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has raised the aviation code to “red” and the alert level to “warning.”
Because there is no-ground based monitoring equipment on Bogoslof volcano, the AVO cannot predict future eruptive activity. Instead, they will monitor from afar -- using satellite images and other data for indications of significant seismic activity.
Prior to this, the last recorded eruption of Bogoslof was in 1992.
